1. If you are a collector and wish to keep the rifle original as possible you leave the paint and rifle as it is. A conservator in a museum would clean the wood with a 50/50 mix of raw linseed oilicon and turpentine using a heat lamp to sweat the impurities to the surface of the wood while cleaning a small section of the stock at a time.

The metal parts would be cleaned with olive oil, wiped dry and then have a coat of neutral PH wax applied to prevent rust.

2. Bubba would throw the stock in the dish washer, sand all the stamps and cartouches off the stock and put six coats of high gloss polyurethane on all the wood. He would then remove the green primer, cut six inches off the barrel and send the metal parts out to be chromed.

It’s your Enfield and you can do anything you want from item number 1 to item number 2 or anything in between.

I would do a modified version of number 1 and use the olive oil on my salads with a little red wine vinegar.

The 1940 Britishicon message below spells thing out very clearly, the paint was applied and the fore stock did not have to be removed for yearly inspection under overseas combat conditions.